Who Was The Biggest Flop Of Euro 2012?

The Franchise wrote:Nasri doesnt deserve a mention I should add.

He was excellent vs England and was wrongly dropped vs Spain. Nothing he could do about that.

Oops..

And i was thinking why Nasri was totally invisible against Spain

My bad..

He had a good game against England but was pretty meh in the rest of the games he's played in.

Nasri was poor, the problem with him is that he doesn't release the ball quickly enough. I wouldn't consider him a flop. Benzema was much worse, he was anonymous...

Keeper flop: 1st - Scezney. 2nd - Given.
Defensive flop: 1st - Van der Wiel. 2nd - Mexes
Midfield flop: 1st - Robben. 2nd - Young
Striker flop: 1st - Benzema. 2nd - van Persie
Coach flop: 1st - van Marwijk. 2nd - Blanc.

From Italy's perspective, Balotelli hasn't been the most disappointing player for me. At least he has some spark to the team (although his lazy finishing and complacency gets on my nerves).

Anyway, that honour belongs to Maggio, who has looked uncharacteristically out of place and unsure of himself.

When the squad was initially named, I was confident that Abate would be there just to make up the numbers, but then the 2nd choice, Criscito, got dropped as a consequence of the betting allegations.

Even then, Maggio would've been the starter, but his famous "box-to-box right-back" style is nowhere to be seen. Without his attacking influence and defensive presence the 3-5-2 system was seen as vulnerable on the wings by Prandelli - especially on the right wing with Balzaretti asked to play a more advanced role.

So without Maggio at his best, the benefit of the system has been compromised in the eyes of the coach, a notion I sympathise with. I suspect that this is the main factor that has led to Prandelli's reversion to a formation with a traditional back-four. I'm glad that Abate has stepped up to the occasion thus far.

As for Maggio, I think he got himself suspended during his cameo against England.

Labeling Van Marwijk a flop is unfair imo. His tactics were not wrong at all. His team just couldn't finish against Denmark and were beaten 2-1 by a team that could win the whole thing (twice :lucas : )

Even Blanc's tactics made sense in theory. However both managers failed at man management which they definetly deserve criticism for. But still in both cases a lot of blame goes to both sets of players.

Forza Rossoneri wrote:From Italy's perspective, Balotelli hasn't been the most disappointing player for me. At least he has some spark to the team (although his lazy finishing and complacency gets on my nerves).

Anyway, that honour belongs to Maggio, who has looked uncharacteristically out of place and unsure of himself.

When the squad was initially named, I was confident that Abate would be there just to make up the numbers, but then the 2nd choice, Criscito, got dropped as a consequence of the betting allegations.

Even then, Maggio would've been the starter, but his famous "box-to-box right-back" style is nowhere to be seen. Without his attacking influence and defensive presence the 3-5-2 system was seen as vulnerable on the wings by Prandelli - especially on the right wing with Balzaretti asked to play a more advanced role.

So without Maggio at his best, the benefit of the system has been compromised in the eyes of the coach, a notion I sympathise with. I suspect that this is the main factor that has led to Prandelli's reversion to a formation with a traditional back-four. I'm glad that Abate has stepped up to the occasion thus far.

As for Maggio, I think he got himself suspended during his cameo against England.

And suspended for nothing also, meaning that we are in deep sh1t if it goes 120 mins, though I dont think so this time.

The flop XI:
Cech had mistake after mistake, even though he covered up most of them, he was pretty awful.
Maggio has had a rought time defe.sively throughout the Euro, including a short cameo againat England where he got himself suspended for the next game.
Heitinga and Mexes were both torn apart time and time again.
Van Der Wiels tournament was summed up by his awful performance against Ronaldo, where Ronaldo git past him time and time again.
Xavi and Meireles are the biggest names in their respective midfields, yet both are getting seriously outperformed by their midfield partners. They havent been.bad, just vdry very quiet.
Not as much was expected from Parker as from say Xavi, but Parker has still been completely invisible.
Muller went from WC top scorer to having absolutely no.impact in any of the games. Grantdd, hes been asked to defend alot, but he should still do more when getting forward.
Benzema i dont think had a single.shot on goal and RVP on the back of his best club season ever only scored one goal and it was a consolation goal, even though he mustve had a dozen or more chances.

Ashley Young could replace Muller here and Willems could replace Maggio, but other than that i think my XI is spot on. Robben btw didnt have a bad Euro, he created lots of chances, Rvp and Huntelaar just couldnt score them, and overall Robben was very dangerous.

Xavi flopping...? That's...hmmm. I read your description but I don't agree at all.

Muller is pretty harsh too. His teams in the semifinals and I haven't seen a game from him where I'd label him as a flop. He's always been at least decent. I'd replace him with Robben.

I think a shoutout has to go to Kerzhakov, the guy missed every chance that came his way...and he had a lot of them.

Robben is the flop of the tournament for me though. Extremely selfish, missed every chance that came his way (including a golden one that would have got a point against Denmark), shot over countless times in half chances, didn't have hardly any dangerous through balls.

Robben has that special ability of being dangerous without being clinical or cutting edge- and therefore, he is dangerous...without actually being dangerous.

Guy can dribble several people and waste it time and time again. Sick of seeing it. He flopped hard.

Marieles the biggest name in the midfield? According to who? Veloso and Moutinho are both better players and have been for some time now.

Xavi being included is just obsurd lol

Blanc and Robben.

Meireles star midfield man for Portugal? Prem-face alert

Van Persie and Balotelli.RVP was horrible bar that one goal

Benzema, Robben, Young and

Arbeloa

Arbeloa? wtf lol

I'm surprised that only one person has mentioned Parker. IMO, Parker was worst than every other player that has been mentioned so far. Also, I am sure Parker would have fit into the Republic of Ireland team nicely because they were just as bad.

Parker's job is to block shots and hassle the midffield of other teams. He did exactly that.

Whether he played at a high level is extremely debatable but he definetly didn't flop, that would imply people were expecting him to set the tournament alight

cassano

How was Arbeloa good ?he made at least 2 terrible mistakes and was saved by Iker and Casillas.he has also been average going forward

He doesn't have to be good but that doesn't mean he flopped.

I don't think you guys know what flopped means exactly lol

With the way he played for Tottenham last season, I think it's fair to expect Parker to be more involved, but I didn't see it and to me, he didn't have a presence in midfield.

Entire Neanderthals team bar Sneijder, Balotelli, English midfield, Podolski, Nasri etc etc...no one stands out.

Jordi Alba stands out.... as being the most impressive of course.

Cotes wrote:Ronaldo the flop at World Cup 2010?????????
don't be bias...Messi was invisible the whole tournament...
CR scored a goal!

For one moment I thought you were a Real Madrid fan. I can hardly believe I am reading such a baseless post at this forum after reading so much intelligent discussion. C.Ronaldo scored that goal against North Korea and that too was sort of a lucky goal. He was hopeless against every other team literally for the entire 90 minutes. In fact he was so bad that I couldn't have ever predicted that he would improve so much in the next international tournament in just two years time. I will say one thing in his defense though to be entirely fair - he had the most hopelessly negative coach that I have probably seen to date and that can frustrate the life out of any attacking player. Then I thought he would be an international flop for life. Now I think he is capable of winning an international title. What a difference it has been. As for Messi without even going into specifics let me just say he was chosen among top ten players of WC 2010 and some like Del Bosque felt he could even have been given the tournament golden ball though I don't agree with that. Not scoring a goal doesn't mean flopping. Without scoring a goal you can even be the best player at a tournament. However now if C.Ronaldo wins Euro 2012 then it's Messi who will be behind him in international performances because an Olympic gold medal isn't an honor in the same class as far as football goes.

Edit: Oh I see.. How has Jordi Alba flopped?

About Arbeloa, he hasnt really flopped seeing as no one expected anything from him. He has been as bad as I expected him to be..